The objective of the invention is to provide inexpensively a highly versatile and convenient biased holder for a variety of implements ranging from kitchen tongs, tweezers and clamps to chopsticks or the like. In essence, the invention seeks to provide a basic spring holder for detachable implements which engage in socket elements or sleeves permanently attached to the spring holder. In most instances, the basic spring holder consists of a split ring having a pair of convergent preferably conically tapered implement socketing sleeves anchored within openings of the split ring which lie on opposite sides of the ring division line on axes which extend chordwise of the ring. A salient feature of the device is that the active ends of implements socketed in the convergent sleeves may be disposed selectively beyond either corresponding ends of the sleeves.
A wide variety of resilient gripping and tweezer or tong-like implements are known in the prior art, but none of the prior art devices possesses the universality of the biased implement holder herein or the wide range of utility inherently embodied in it.
To comply with the duty of disclosing known prior art under 37 C.F.R. 1.56, the following U.S. patents are made of record herein:
U.S. Pat. Nos. 211,855, 788,672, 884,680, 1,260,302, 1,315,808, 1,707,947, 1,745,411, 1,765,974, 2,629,276, 2,887,110, 3,293,958, 3,323,825, 3,398,746, 3,559,515, 3,637,248, 4,012,068, 4,023,450.